Exams ended for both children and BB even got back some marks. He got back marks for Maths, Science and English Literature and did well only for Maths. We’ll know what went wrong only when we see the papers next week.

Friday was a holiday for both of them and in the morning, we went to the bank and got them their very own savings accounts. Since they are under 16, the account comes with many restrictions and has to be a joint account with an adult (aka me). But as a start, it’s a good way to get them into a savings habit well before they start working and earning.

Later in the day, a whole bunch of BB’s friends came home and the boys (plus one girl) had a blast playing games, chatting and generally having fun.

Next week is results week plus some after exam activity. GG has a School Councillors camp which is compulsary for those who want to become confirmed as Councillors next year. This camp is a stay-in camp where she will have to stay in school overnight. BB has a glider fest in one of the polytechnics here which is an almost 12 hour activity the week after next. Plus GG has some choir practice as they are planning for the Singapore Youth Festival next year.

That’s all the updates for this week. I’ll probably do another couple of weeks more (till the end of the month) and then that will be the end of the Secondary 1 updates for this year.

We’re in the midst of exam season for both BB & GG. BB’s exams get over one day before GG’s next week and then till the end of the month they will still go to school but have non-studies components until the end of the month when holidays start.

Both of them say ‘OK’ when asked how the exams went until today, but I guess the proof in the pudding is when we get the marks back. That’s when we’ll actually know how well they have done.

Next week, when they have a holiday for marking day (luckily the same day for both), I will be taking them to the bank’s local branch to open a savings account for both of them. This will be kept separate from the trust accounts I opened for them when they were around a month old. The money there (in the trust account) is meant for their tertiary studies and can’t be touched by them under any circumstances (I’ve indoctrinated them about this from the time they were babies and so they do know they can’t touch this account). However, to operate a savings account independently, they need to be 16 years old, but between the ages of 12 and 16, they can operate this account under parental supervision and consent.

The main reason for opening a bank account at such a young age is to get them familiar with this process now and also make them financially literate before they start working and earning serious money. I’ve also told them that by the time they finish school, they should have more than 80% of the total money they get over this period of time saved up. GG is good at saving and even now she’s managed save double that of BB, so I need to work on him for this now. Let’s see how this pans out.

Nine months are done and we’re now in the last quarter of the year. The children are in the midst of exams and the school year will end by the end of this month.

GG had a small incident on Friday in school. For a few months now, for no real reason, she has been constantly kicked out of her class WhatsApp group chat. Initially, she used to ask friends to add her back in, but later gave it up when it happened one too many times. On Friday, when she came back from school, she looked very upset and when I asked her what happened, she burst out crying. When I was able to calm her down and get the details, I found that the previous evening, the Maths teacher had reached out to the class chairperson and asked the class to bring some specific books to class. The class chairperson then put this request in the group chat. Since GG did not have access to the class group chat, she did not take the things needed and got a ticking off from her form teacher. Her form teacher also told her about certain other things she and other teachers have noted about GG and reprimanded her saying, if this continues, she will ask the school to take away her student councillor badge and position. This upset GG, and by extension me as I knew how GG strove to be a model student in school. I texted the teacher asking if I could speak to her and the teacher called me almost immediately.

I texted the teacher asking if I could speak to her and the teacher called me almost immediately. We spoke and I mentioned about the class chat group and also wondered if GG was being cyber bullied as one of the first instances of such bullying is to kick out the person being bullied from these chat groups so they don’t know what is being said about them as well as allow the others to talk trash about the person. The teacher also mentioned the other things she spoke to GG about and in those, I did agree with the teacher, GG had made some mistakes, but these were small ones, not big enough that the badge is taken away. However, small mistakes can add up to become big ones and after the talk, I did spend time with GG talking to her and explaining why the teacher spoke to her about those instances. Within 5 minutes of the teacher speaking to me, GG got added to the class group chat again. Hopefully, this incident will teach Aditi about accepted behaviour from the school on part of student councillors as well as be a learning point for her.